Autonomous UVS

Abstract

Cost drivers and the requirement for UVS to be mobile and adaptive means that a number of systems – either component technologies or multiple UVS – will need to be controlled by a relatively small number of people. This implies both a high degree of autonomy, and that humans will be retained within the decision-making loop at some level. In this chapter, therefore, the functional components and architecture of an autonomous UVS are described, together with the nature of human-UVS interaction. This is intended to provide an appreciation of the complexity and scale of such systems, and an understanding of the degrees of freedom that are often coupled when the performance of autonomous UVS are measured. The chapter lays the ground-work for discussing the technological challenges, the issues pertaining to technology-force insertion, and the legal conundrums.